What I Believe Lyle D. Feisel Dean Emeritus Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering State University of New York at Binghamton ASEE President (1997-98) IEEE Vice-President for Education (2000-2002)

I believe we don’t really “teach” We can only help our students to learn Our job is to manage learning activities for our students Active learning is the only kind of learning There is no such thing as “inactive learning” Students can learn from each other (cooperative learning) Most of all, they learn by doing and they learn what they do

I believe in clear written learning objectives Tell our students what we want them to “know” Tell them what will be on the test Have students learn to write their own learning objectives

I believe that “to know” is “to be able to do” Write learning objectives (outcomes) like this: After successfully completing this unit, the student will be able to … Define (list of terms) Explain (one or more concepts) Compute (a quantity using a certain technique) Solve (one or more kinds of problems) Judge (the relative merits of several solutions) You can’t determine what a student “knows” or “understands” or “is familiar with”. You can only determine what they are “able to do”.

I believe that engineering is a noble profession It has a rich history It has a distinct body of knowledge We know things that non-engineers don’t It has educational requirements It is usually regulated by society It has codes of ethics Engineers have a responsibility to provide for the health, safety, and welfare of the public Because we know things that non-engineers don’t